1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a transfer blanket, in particular a rubber blanket, for a printing press.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
In offset printing, it is conventional practice to transfer ink from a printing plate onto a printing material along an indirect path via a transfer blanket which is also called a rubber blanket. Here, a distinction is made between compressible and non-compressible rubber blankets, compressible rubber blankets optionally being used. Rubber blankets are able to compensate for unevennesses in the printing material at the printing locations. As rubber blankets of this type can age and be damaged with regard to their physical and chemical properties, they have to be exchangeable. For this purpose, the rubber blankets are fastened at clamping points within the printing press, it being intended for the clamping point to have dimensions which are as small as possible, for reasons of the printing quality. Here, it can be difficult to fasten the rubber blankets at a clamping point with correspondingly small dimensions.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,530,321 B2 discloses a rubber blanket for a printing press, having a carrier layer and a covering layer, a plurality of intermediate layers being arranged between the carrier layer and the covering layer. According to U.S. Pat. No. 6,530,321 B2, all of the intermediate layers and the covering layer are shortened compared with the carrier layer. The rubber blanket is then fastened at a clamping point of the printing press exclusively using the carrier layer.
DE 195 43 584 C1 likewise discloses a rubber blanket for a printing press. The rubber blanket disclosed in DE 195 43 584 C1 again has a carrier layer, a covering layer and a plurality of intermediate layers which are positioned between the carrier layer and the covering layer. All of the intermediate layers are of shortened configuration compared with the carrier layer, that section of the carrier layer which protrudes compared with the intermediate layers being of angled-away configuration. The rubber blanket is fastened at the clamping point of the printing press exclusively via this angled-away section of the carrier layer. The free ends of the intermediate layers are sealed via an angled-away portion of the covering layer.
Accordingly, a common feature of the transfer blankets or rubber blankets known from the prior art is that they are fastened at the clamping point of the printing press exclusively via the carrier layer.